“I would like to take you on a strange journey” offers one nice old gent at the start. Would that be one that doesn’t involve hearing another disc-ful of bog-standard hate-core metal din? And would your name be Jeffrey Archer by any chance in that case as that exactly what this Scandi quartet more or less inflict on us here.

Not robbed of redeeming factors, a few numbers of its fourteen do have some passable rhythms and one or two real stompers and the instrumental near the end saves it from total lack of interest, but its still too much of a day at the office otherwise.

For those totally glued to the scene only, but for those wanting to be introduced - Hey, I know, what about….. Loud, shrieky, earsplitting, normally lyrically meaningful but quite often musically directionless, like this.

Will that do you?

It's been a rough year for Oxfordshire based metallers Chokehold, but after going through the motions with their former label and waving goodbye to a few members; the band appear to be back on track and ready to pick up exactly where they left off with their new opus "The Sweet Sense Of Genocide".

Kicking off with the visceral "Life On Loan" through to the caustic "Blindfolded"; a rhythm lead beast, that later erupts into a full on At The Gates-esque thrash throwdown, with all the subtlety of a back street brawl. This is before we're thrown kicking and screaming into the guttural assault of "Post Work Syndrome", a 4-minute, moshtastic assault of the senses, that hammers home the fact that Chokehold are back with a fucking vengeance.

Not one's to rest comfortably on any particular flavour of the metal banquet, the band proceed to toss in some Pantera-esque influences into the mix with stunning results, as demonstrated on the malevolently destructive “Die Free” and the aural annihilation of “Eyes Of Democracy”, slabs of quality southern metal that sit neatly next to the likes of innate fury of “Pay, Pain, Crave” and the Biohazard-esque “Gutterman” like they were soulmates.

Fact is, if it's a well rounded, brutal as holy fuck metal album that you're after, written by pissed off young men who've had enough of this dank pisshole of a country we inhabit, then Chokehold are very much your men.

Oh, now this is more like it. Y'see, as a freelance scribe, I seem to be a target for whatever sh*te record labels are peddling as "The Next Big Thing" every week. And while every so often they send out a corker, 9 times out of 10 they send you a terd; a stinking, wretched excuse for aural pleasure, that fails to meet even the most basic of requirements when it comes to penning a half decent song. Don't you feel sorry for us poor scribes? No? F*ck ya then..

Anyway, back onto the topic; the new album from French polymath metallers Cubensis easily qualifies as said corker. Absent are the awful haircuts, the non-sensical cliches and the general shoddiness that many modern bands seem content to deliver, and in their place are mountanous riffs, earth rumbling vocals and an overwhelming and concussive percussive assault, tightly wound into a violent, eerie and overall enthralling musical experience.

From the Meshuggah-esque, disjointed rhythms of "Metaphysical Impact" to the pummelling aggression of The Greed, Cubensis offer a musical assault that combines incredibly technical music that while complicated, is incredibly accessable; boasting thick grooves and incredible vocal melodies, akin to that of fellow countrymen Gojira.

The only real sour element to Cubensis are their lyrical content. Let's be fair, any album with a track titled "Mother Ball Break Club" deserves another glance before deeming them either genius or idiots. Then again, if this is overlooked you're left with a simply incredibly album that's rife with intriguing ideas, top-notch writing and an overall sensation that these quirky frenchmen really are onto something.

In a nutshell, while this isn't a million miles away from Gojira or Meshuggah, this is still a mightily enjoyable album; complex, yet catchy, brutal, yet melodic; Cubensis may have written one of the finest metal albums of the year. All they need now is that final boost to get them to the astute level of their countrymen.

Best of luck.

A real together, precision tuned bunch of party-positive fun-filled rockers from Israel – yes you read that right – kinda like Slaughter meets Def Leppard & even a bit of Tyketto in there as well plus other bands of that ilk.

They are extremely harmonious and melodic that the chicks are bound to swoon over – they can catch your attention with the keyboardy Bon Jovi’ish ditty opener ‘Heartbreaker’ and turn to mushy romantic female grabbing material like the ballad ‘All I need’ then whisk you off with ‘Dirty Game’ and uplifted on ‘Show me the way’ or the Malmsteen-like ‘T.K.O’ before languishing us with the lovely closer ‘Heaven Is Waiting’.

First ever 80’s LA-inspired band from Israel – the flag is yours guys so wave it well.

Excellent quality 5 tracker of classic 80’s Metal – think Judas Priest meets UFO and other elements as well along the way.

Goes to show that the UK still has Metal bands it can be proud of (these guys hail from London & Birmingham to be exact.) They deliver songs as trad metal and in-ya-face as good as ‘Sea Of Dead Dreams’ & ‘Sands Of Time’ and also try and bring newness and freshness into it too. Included are a couple of live tracks as well – one of which is their single released on ‘Rise Above Record’ which I fully recommend – this being ‘Dead Man’s Paradise’.

They have supported the likes of Orange Goblin & Skindred already and played Bloodstock too.

Big things for the future – this is metal!

An artist who I discovered via myspace – an Italian artist who has a liking for Southern Rock and other similar styles of music. He is also the frontman for a band from Italy called Black Widow.

It’s relaxed material that has some gorgeous country elements and reminds me of Eagles, my 2 buddies Bryce Barnes & Joey Monroe of The Oysters in Fort Myers, Fl. USA,and Crosby, Stills & Nash etc – you’re catchin’ on then – well I hope so.

Highlights on here include the southern rockin’ ‘Ships In The Wind’, the brilliant laid-back countryness of ‘Out In The Frontline’, the epic ‘Brush My Cymbals’ – that reminds me of Supertramp’s ‘Rudy’ gone deep south with a really strong southern feel to it with its guitar work and harmonica intro. ‘What I See’ with its bright magical melody and vocal harmonies and the optimistic closer ‘Taking Chances’ because life is good to be living as J.C. tells us.

Can’t help but really like this album a lot. Go to www.myspace.com/jccynel for more info and of course www.jccynel.com

I didn’t realise these were still going but am pleased to say they sound as strong as ever – I remember them in the earlier part of the 90’s with songs like ‘Nigger’ (an anti-rascism song actually) and ‘Tell The Truth’.

Rappin’ and singing away with crushing riffery about topics including parental child abuse in ‘Little Baby’; mortality in ‘Life will kill you’; Isalmic Suicide Bombers in ‘Final Stand’ or looking at your days positively like in ‘It’s Your Life’.

Decent enough album but not the most exciting one out there.

Thrash-oriented opener ‘Bleed’ pounds with an intense old-school metal rhythm that dominates the tune, but for the remaining nine numbers, we seem to be taken in all directions but thankfully not too many at once. Albeit adding a wholesome industrial edge that matches the sound of Frontline Assembly and Fear Factory quite closely at small but distinct intervals, the whole album maintains a largely melodic leaning for the most parts of its duration contributing factor of which existing in some rather ‘Black Album’/’Re-load’ – era Metallica rhythm guitar crunching.

My point of view here is, simply, this one’s a belter, boys, and I don’t get the privilege to say that about a lot of nu-metal releases. ‘Six Feet Under’, ‘Always The Same’, ‘Vanished Memories’, ‘Silent’ and ‘Train To Leave’ having already established that, along with ‘Bleed’ of course, the genre often reviled by veteran metal followers has served up one much more likely to entice the doubters.

The occasional dragging moment intact, ‘P.O.V.’ is credit done to the contemporary metal scene and success for this promising band is deserved.

Italy does it again.

After about two decades in the trade, the veteran sextet still ply their trade in dark and brooding but melodic metal noise that relies on depth ad feel more than speed and aggression. Bucketloads of the former two abound here as per norm and although it quite easily picks up where their self-titled previous album left us, two years back, tunes like ‘Empreror Of The Void’, ‘Of Stars And Smoke’, ‘Demonia 6’, ‘Destroyer’ and ‘Clearsight’ make this album stand on its own.

Not that the music is entirely their own, listening to that blatant rip off of the intro riff to Slayer’s ‘Dead Skin Mask’ that kicks off closer ‘Embracing The Styx’, their musicianship is as equally powerful if an almost together different animal to what the LA thrash legends embody in the extreme metal circle. The melodies both on throat ad strings stay with one all the way through and captivate, fully in leiu of just serving as an excuse to knock the stuffing out of one another in a future moshpit.

Heavy music for those grown up enough to appreciate the thought put into it, Candlemass’s flame never manages to stay out no matter how hard you blow on it.

Recommended - equally so for new fans.

Without intending to rub any fans up the wrong way, I am not a particular nut on the genre but have lent my ears to enough to know belters from...beer mats when it comes to dishing the dirt on such an album. Quite some time itself since their last full-length album, the Down boys haven’t exactly walked on ignored and if anything, should replenish their cred six-fold with this beaut’.

Opting for the more punkier, guitar prominent elements of the ska sound rather than just sit on sounding like a second division Madness as do a fair few bands of this scene, these five jolly young men keep me listening non stop through all twelve and while there are the usual tiny portion of less than incredible intervals the disc rocks as a whole. Stick ‘Blood Sweat and Fears’, ‘....Toys’, ‘Terms And Conditions Apply’, ‘Surviving The Death Of A Genre’, ‘Thrash Tuesday’, ‘Keeping Up Appearances’ or ‘Strictly Business’ on your spinners and you should see what I’m on about.

Kindly don’t disappear six years again, please, lads.

Indeed they put a lot of the ideas into their sound as stated on the promo sheet though an industrial feel is the most notable.

Noisy but nice, three songs by a band of this genre is usually about enough for me but this time round, more would have been welcomed.

Cheope are a five-piece progressive nu-metal band based in Rome, they have two guitars in the lineup and also introduce electronic samples into their work. By listening to this album you begin to realise that Cheope aren't quite your run-of-the-mill Nu-metal outfit, they will drag in elements to their work that will remind the listener of numerous other artists.

I'd have to describe the album as 'experimental' because it appears to be, as the album title suggests, a melting pot for the different ideas the individual performers have for the bands direction. Unfortunately there isn't anywhere near enough of the right influences on offer here to keep me interested. The tracks lack sufficient weight and gravity, the melodies are few and far between and I couldn't help but feel disappointed by the absence of any notable twin-guitar attack, which
is a shame as both guitarists have talent.

On a positive note I noticed numerous skillful rhythm changes and the vocals and lyrics seem to fit into the scheme of things rather well. Still, I think yet another person airing their views as to how Cheope should proceed is the last thing they need. As it is, I can see 'Again', 'On Air' and 'Face to Face' being popular and would recommend these to people as being indicative of the album.

Give it a go.

Even though this CD has a plethora of Mozart rip-offs I still think that it's one of COB's best records to date. The intro to this album is actually from the movie "Amadeus" with Salieri uttering "from now on, we are enemies. . You and I" He was speaking in terms of the Crucifix and in the movie he burned it because of his envy towards Mozart.

I'd say this CD is pure Melodic Death Metal Alexi kicking ass on Guitar/Vocals shows sheer talent with speed and precision on both Rhythm and Lead Guitar Work. Alexander puts together an awesome effort as well on Rhythm Guitar. The band as a whole worked wonders on this release. Just check out "Bed Of Razors" and you'll see what brilliance and technicality from the entire band!!!

There's a mix of extremely fast tremolo picked guitar work, keys as well demonstrating awesome tie-ins with the guitars, the drums fast paced and on cue and Alexi's vocals feature mostly high-pitched screams with a little bit of clean as variety. The production by Anssi Kippo does a great job giving each instrument precision in the recording.

Alexi on lead shows us such well designed solo work plus incorporating like I mentioned earlier Mozart cuts very well executed. The band wholeheartly kicked serious ass on this album. Another track to take a listen to would be "Warheart".

Track listing:

1. Warheart
2. Silent Night, Bodom Night
3. Hatebreeder
4. Bed Of Razors
5. Towards Dead End
6. Black Widow
7. Wrath Within
8. Children Of Bodom
9. Downfall

Credits:

Alexi Laiho - Vocals/Lead Guitar
Alexander Kuoppala - Rhythm Guitar
Janne Wirman - Keyboards
Henkka Seppälä - Bass
Jaska Raatikainen - Drums

Solo album from the frontman of Southern Rock band ‘Copperhead’ and draws you to his attention from the start with ‘The Cain Preacher’ and keeps you there throughout with his real life stories about livin’ in the South. There’s special guests on the album too – Barry Goudreau (Boston); Johnny Neel (The Allman Brothers); Stu Kimball (The Bob Dylan Band) & Chris Anderson (The Outlaws) that make it all that bit more special

The material appears more laid back and autobiographical than what I have heard on the Copperhead ‘Live & Lost’ CD – a good example being the beautiful ‘Righteous Side of Life’ that’s got Gospel and country aspects running in the song and ‘Never Been Born’ about his child with his mum and dad when he lived on a farm.

Love the close to the bone ‘Edge of the Green’ – Daddy won’t ya spare me a little change – what a song man, what a song !! – a real epic of a number as is ‘Malibu days’ with its crackin’ bit of organ playing.

Check him out via www.neilcarswell.com

Fancy a nice musical mix of Blackfoot, Molly Hatchet & Lynyrd Skynyrd ? Well I do anyway and you should too !!

4 numbers live and 8 from the studio that sees my hearing the sounds of the south just the way I like it - this band rocks and blueses out the way you’d want them too leaving a full indication that these boys are the authentic real deal – I mean they even cover ZZ Top’s ‘Whiskey Mama’ much to my delight – a classic from the ‘Rio Grande Mud’ album released back in ’72 – even the ‘Texan Trio’ haven’t played that ditty in years as well as doing a heartfelt cover of ‘Drift Away’ as well.

Their own songs are absolutely killer - take the opening instrumental ‘Stricken’, the anthemic ‘Hard Livin’ or ‘Whiskey’. They also get deep and ballady as well on the brilliant ‘Voices in the Night’ or slide guitarin’ ‘I’ll Get By’.

The Southern sound don’t get much better that this.

Obviously parting company with power metal’s greatest ever band took its toll on his commercial credibility so badly that he was forced into a low profile for a bit - come on mate, they do at least have Jon Oliva back now. Or has he just been busy working his musical socks off ever since?

Well, he does seem to have picked up four good looking young men en route - nothing dude meant by that of course – and while none of their names or faces ring any bells, their style has and who else better for Zak to take on the job with his latest exploit. Aiming for a darker more gothier edge than before, C.T.C. are very much as metal as you’d expect but matured for this side of the millennium and Zak’s range resembling Eddie Vedder’s more by the minute means that there is almost no attempt to drag a dead horse to its feet with this outfit.

Velvety melodic metal with superb stringery courtesy of Messrs Lee and Christopher maintains the still strongly vintage angle on the sound as to minimise offence to purists and their sound veers surprisingly close to Brit hair rock legends Shy on one number a band who would have also benefit immensely more with Stevens’s soulful voice.

A welcome and very masterfully crafted return from one of heavy metals most respected throats. Zak Stevens, don’t you dare ever disappear like that again, you naughty ….. You’re forgiven mate.

Belter.

They recently reformed with Jimmy Kunes from Savoy Brown on lead vocals. I read about these guys lately before the album came out and wasn’t too familiar with them but I knew who Carmine Appice was since he was Rod Stewart’s drummer for a few years plus a member of Vanilla Fudge as well.

This album is pure 70’s rock and blues all the way through the fourteen tracks and it’s class stuff with highlights including the opening ‘Doing Time’; ‘Cactus Music’; ‘Hi in the City’; ‘Electric Blue’; ‘Blame/Game’; ‘Gone Train Gone’.

Ya just can’t beat this.

Coldseed are probably their greatest discovery of late, even if their style takes some surmounting. Kicking in with roaring industrial thrashcore for the opening number but about halfway through becoming something sounding like Corrosion of conformity, circa ‘Wiseblood’ is n almost dead cert guarantee of getting most Metal fans confused.

One is reminded of a more commercialised Fear Factory, by most of these twelve numbers but with bigger hooks and a lot more old-school flavour in guitar styles - check out some frighteningly Megadeth/Anthrax oriented attacks…. and yes we have solos as well (I think you are confusing me now, Dave - Ed’). An extraordinary yet incredible album, ‘C.M.T.T’ is a colossal work that I’ve rarely heard any other band attempt to assemble let alone to such astounding end product.

A lot of preposterous conglomerations fall flat on their face but Coldseed don’t even come close to losing balance with this. The fastest growing seed of metal’s future has been sown - kept the patch well watered.

A traditionally sounding Heavy Metal/Power Metal band whose vocalist ‘Chris Parrish’ has a large range of baritone to squawking tenor.

Not the best sounding of CD’s as its rather flat and mono– well this is a self produced demo for gods sake but if put in a studio that a band like Blind Guardian and Hammerfall would use and the right Producer and Engineer then these guys would sound miles better and stand a chance of competing with the big bands out there – this is a start though.

Of the six strong song cd highlights include ‘Forgotten Future’ and ‘Garden of Memories’. Look out for ‘em at a metal venue near you.

Now friends, here’s the vocalist of Family, Roger Chapman caught live with his Shortlist in concert in Kiel, Germany, 1981 at the Ost Halle.

This is a re-release and was originally a Rockpalast show and focuses on Roger’s ‘He Was’ album. There’s some outstanding material on here such as the opener ‘Higher Ground’; ‘Blood and Sound’; the quirky ‘n’ weird, reggae’ish like ‘Hyenas only laugh for fun’; the uptempo dancing ‘Night Down No. 2A LA ZZ’ that sees Roger opening the song up with the opening verse of The Supreme’s classic ‘You keep me hanging on’ before driving into some crackin’ sax playing.

You get a grippin’ medley that features The Beatle’s ‘Slow Down’ to the mandolin like intro of that’s coupled with Chapman’s ‘Common Touch’; the well known ‘He was, she was’ ; a nice bit of Hendrix’s ‘Stone Free’ – love that cowbell in the background.

Let that waling, vibrato tenor of Roger’s up your night for a while – if ‘Unknown Soldier’ doesn’t then nothing will.

A good ole metal 3-piece from Syracuse, New York who take us back to the mid 80’s with their Kiss like sound and Paul Stanley’ish vocals. It’s a five tracker with songs that have cool playing and plenty of hooks such as those found in ‘Mine, Mine, Mine’ or the cheesey lyriced ‘The Queen of Pleasure’ with its throbbing distorted rhythm playing.

Keep the cd player on till track 13 as it’s really funny – a telephone call of complaining from their landlord.

Demonic high speedin’ power metal from these German Metallers – you simply don’t know what to expect with a name like Casus Belli do you – Deep, dark, heavy as sh*t Malmsteenesque like material that is on full pelt virtually throughout the album. Racin’ double bass drummin’, chuggin’ guitar riffery, galloping basswork and a throaty buy ever clear vocal style.

Highlights on here include the opening ‘I’m your master’ the title track with it’s melodic cavalcades of milestone solos; the bulleting machine gunning of ‘Isolation’ – a la ‘Painkiller’ Priest; the Faith No More like ‘Naked King’ with blinding tremolo guitar solos and ‘Eastern Dance’ – especially the extraordinary guitar solo from 1.37 to 2.26 plus it’s a right blaster of a song too. What’s amazing is they finish it off with a slow beautiful acoustic/electric instrumental entitled ‘Whispering’.

They stand out from Europack for sure when it comes to power metal stylings.

Motorheaded leather clad mothers who got the dirty guitar chops and bashing at you ferociously in the vocals department – I just know you’ll believe me when you hear the 1st vocal effort ‘Serial Killer’. They are actually somewhat an underground supergroup made up of Shagrath from Dimmu Borgir (Guitar); Tony White of Minus Tirith (Drums); Luna of Ashes to Ashes and on vocals Eddie Guz of The Carburetors & Ricky Black (Guitar) – they are all Norwegians as well.

This album will shake you up 1st thing in the morning - it did me – it fully sorted my head out big style with cutz like ‘Chrome Division’; the Harleyfied ‘Trouble with the Law’; the brutal battering ‘When the sh*t hits the fan’; the head-boppin’ ‘We Want More’ and the road-trodden ‘Till the break of dawn’.

Wonder if these motherf*ck*rs will tour – I’d go see ‘em for sure – if you put this album on for a chick and she digs it then you know you’ve got the right woman for sure.

A band from Australia that are kinda new-breed punky alternative and come across very fresh. ‘Far Too Sober’ and ‘Maia’s Teething’ have that Alice In Chains and Stone Temple Pilots thang going down with an almost Mike Patten vibe at points in the songs – well to be honest the majority of it does – must be a big thing in OZ at the moment.

That’s a f*ck*n’ crackin’ solo in ‘Take It All’ and has got a little bit of ‘Skynyrd’s ‘Freebird’ style thrown in there for those who love that southern riffery. Finishes up with an undelightful ditty called ‘Donald’ who ain’t got a house is lonely and whatever else – I guess it’s Mickey Mouse’s Duck mate.

One for the grungers to revel in.

“Highly anticipated comeback album”…”first for 13 years”. These are some of the phrases that graced me from the page of the press release I was holding in my hands upon receiving this Cd to review & by f*ck is this quite rightly “highly anticipated”.

Celtic Frost have held true to form & released a “come-back album” with a truly dark, heavy, utterly raw, droning & almost doom-like drudgery about it. But by no means is this a boring release, far from it, as the first track of the Cd “Progeny” kicks in with an almost tribal guitar riff then explodes into mid-paced blast beats courtesy of Franco Sesa, any listener can hear they’re in for something truly monolithic. As always the Anti-Christian sentiments run throughout this release & are accompanied by a truly crushing, perhaps even minimalistic, instrumntal work.

Tracks that stood out to me on this release: “Progeny”, The first track & a fistful of total fucking aggression. “A Dying God, Coming Into Human Flesh”, an acoustic beginning accompanied by haunting vocals that evolves into a truly crushing monolithic chant. The purely hateful “Domain Of Decay” & “Ain Elohim”. Celtic Frost true to their aggressive headbang-fodder form & the last beautifully depressive instrumental track “Winter (Requiem Chapter 3: The Finale)”.

I have to say this is the one album I’ve heard from an old classic band like Celtic Frost than has impressed me even more than their previous offerings. A raw, back-to-the-underground, heavy sound entirely true to form. I highly recommend this to all old Celtic Frost fans, not to mention those of the Black & Doom Metal inclination!

For the less-initiated of you, they are a little more melodic than you may expect, - they actually sing as well as shriek their guts inside out - and though in possession of over familiar guitar rhythms, they are all the worth checking.

In your faces as they always are.

We find Dale still in powerful voice, especially on the excellent ‘Exit Wound’, a tune which still retains elements of their Harem Scarem sound but more combined with Dokken and early Skid Row’s classic melodic metal style all carried to soaring heights by Andy Lindsay’s distinctive guitar style.

On sale at their gigs, this one is worth picking up and supporting the start of another great South Yorkshire act in the making.

On first listen to this album the sound was reminiscent of Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and WASP. The fast opener ‘The Almighty Power’ had certain thrash/punk elements that weren’t to my taste but ‘Death is a Grand Leveller’ soon caught my attention showing good promise. ‘The Call’ has strong Maiden vibes, ‘The Ripper’ reminiscent of Halford both musically and vocally. All three tracks were catchy and in my opinion showing a welcome departure from the first track with good melodies that were well performed with good guitar throughout and some great bass in ‘The Call’.

The title track, ‘Money Talks’ and ‘Rich Hounds’ all had that distinct punk feeling, faster tempo and blatant over-repetition emphasised by some unimaginative drumming that proved a little tedious for me. ‘Lost Control’ was an improvement if only for a deep, rich guitar hook but the lyrics in the verses sounded awkward and a little forced into the music.

‘Silent Moments’ showed another more refined side to the band that I found impressive. The slower pace seemed to bring a better quality of vocal talent from Thomas Laasch (who sounds like Bruce Dickinson in this track) and the violin was also well used in the background.

‘Stillborn Soul’ was my favourite track from the album; again set at a slower pace it plodded along well with lyrics and grows on you with each play. This track has a strong melody and has none of the faults I outlined on some of the earlier tracks – great work.

In summary, a bit of a mixed bag but overall enjoyable and worthy of recommendation.

hailing from the Mike Patton school of music – well they do give this impression anyway. It’s funky, crazy soul stuff with quirky vocals. Grade A students with mad arrangements

You simply don’t know what’s gonna happen next – so god knows what these guys are like live. A band who deserve to be signed up and heard.

Mr. Furnier’s current release that is similar to his previous effort ‘The Eyes of Alice Cooper’. On this album you get 13 songs that were written in as many days but this time with the allowance of more production coming from Rick Boston (Rickey Lee Jones) and Steve Lindsey (Elton John/Leonard Cohen).

The line-up is the Alice Cooper (Vocals/Harmonica); Ryan Roxie (Guitar); Damon Johnson (formerly of Brother Cane) and Drummer, Tommy Clutetos. There’s an army of other guests on here that include keyboard player Teddy ‘Zig Zag’ Andreadis, most notably of GNR fame.

Songwise there’s everything you’d want from an Alice Cooper album – twisted humour – a good example being ‘The Saga of Jesse James’ about a cross-dressing cowboy that is reminiscent of ‘The Ballad of Dwight Fry’ but in a Texas style. There’s ‘Woman of Mass Distraction’ with its sultry cookin’ riffage – a classic play on words and the Beatle-esque quality of ‘Perfect’ about a girl who can perform in the shower … ooer – he’s talking about singing actually but falls to pieces at the karaoke bar.

Cooper’s cover of The Left Bank’s ‘Pretty Ballerina’ is real nice and he sings that in a beautiful yet uneasy tranquil style. He’s soon back to his stick the dagger and sword in style song with ‘Sunset Babies (all got Rabies)’ that takes the piss out all those good lookin’ but braindead blondes – it’s pure rockin’ singalong Alice humour. Other highlights include the ‘I can’t explain’ like ‘Your own worst enemy’ and the biggest turn up for the books being the bonus track called ‘Stand’ - a rappin’ thang with Xzibit.

It’s album that goes towards setting the standard of shock rock ‘n’ roll with its clever lyrics and first and foremost, hot entertainment.

Slammin’ punk glam 4 piece from Sweden, blowin’ the dust away throughout this album – it don’t let up from ‘Barely Legal’ to ‘Psycho’.

Imagine Therapy meets Teenage Casket Crew, the 3rd release just keeps going rock n roll , party on, bash, bash, bash. They have even toured with the Big Bang Babies and The Hellacopters and it ain’t hard to see why.

Crank it up and stand well back.

With a name that sounds as bit like that funny green stuff you put all over your garden fence, Creozoth have quite a colourful approach to their ssociated area of noise, delivering a palatably Testament-ish power metal assault.

Relying on scope for substance, to pepper their product with a contemporary vibe, inspiration for true metal fans young and old alike, with meaty rhythm guitar lines in particular adding sturdiness to all twelve songs.

Playing jointly in their favour is the ‘gothic-toned echo effect used on some of the vocal parts throughout the album, which vitally contributes to its latter-day essences.

Creozoth’s main down-letting is that only seven numbers are particularly or nearly instant on the listener and the others would have thrived from bigger vocal hooks but for those who approach the album with purely instrumental aspects in mind, there’s less disappointment.

Provided you can cross the obstacle that is their more-than-a-little-questionable moniker, their sound is about 99.9 percent less absurd than forecast - in fact remarkably akin to another Gerry fivesome that have been doing the rounds for the last couple of decades (their name begins with ‘H’ by the way). Twin guitars as opposed to one set of strings and one row of keys, they have, all the same, a very symphonic list in their sound but avoid the epic territories their fellow mainland contemporaries constantly wonder into - the longest song here being 5min 28.

Vocalist Guido Breke boasts a range not totally unlike TNT/Westworld wailer Tony Harnell but some of those backing harmonies with the four other fellas does almost prompt pressing of the ‘skip’ button every now and then. Assuming that some will be no doubt listening for hook value, do not despair as this line of rock does still deal, and paired with their preference to keep things short, sweet and straight, and welcome but not over-formulaic guitar activity, - depending on how most purists judge - you have a band placed firmly at melodic power metal’s better end.

A custard you can enjoy without worrying about any skin forming on top.

Also Recommended :

Back on with the sweet names again are we? Mind you, Carnal Rapture’s sound isn’t, instrumentally speaking that un-sweet itself, trying to slide progressive funk-edged twangings and beats comfortably under the….. well you probably know what the vocals are going to be with a name like that.

A weird combination but watch out, it may yet work.

More AC/DC like stuff from Cherry St. Starting with my fave ‘Dogtown’ and goin into more rock n roll party sleaze. It came out originally in 1996 and features on vocals ‘Marq Torein’ from Bulletboys and Kevin Steele from ‘Roxx Gang/Mojo Gurus’.–

They always put a smile on my face. I dig ‘em – Sin City here I come !! If only they’d play over here.

Initially it seems an interesting idea but after about three tunes you know it’s going in no real direction with absence of hooks or any real catching factors, and vocals that sound like someone was accidentally picked up humming along to this in the studio ruin things even more. Strictly for the ‘nuts’, I’m afraid.

Scandinavian female 4 piece that are a cross between Rockbitch Girlschool and Broadzilla all rolled up into one - Girls with balls who can play real well too - yes I am talking musically before any of you get rude!!

'Losing the game' is an bolshie number against blokes who don't treat women with the respect they deserve - It's presented as an edit and full album form. These girls have class as they've performed a killer version 'Killed By Death' by Motorhead !! My fave number by them as well.

Nice One !! Looking forward to the full album !!